Venezuelan passport holders need an approved ETA before flying to Sri Lanka, whether the journey starts in Caracas, Madrid or Bogotá. It gives 30 days and two entries, and the whole application is completed online in English.
30 days
Stay on a tourist ETA
Double
Entries permitted
6 months
Passport validity needed
3 options
Tourist, Business, Transit
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Few Venezuelans set out for Sri Lanka from Caracas itself these days; far more begin the journey in Madrid, Bogotá, Lima, Santiago or Miami, where a large part of the diaspora now lives. Wherever you start, the rule at the other end is the same for a Venezuelan passport: an Electronic Travel Authorisation, approved before you fly, for any short visit to the island.
Searchers in Spanish usually type visa Sri Lanka or e-visa, and the ETA is the document they are looking for. It is applied for online, in English, and held against the number of your pasaporte instead of being stuck into it. There is no consulate to visit, which matters when the nearest Sri Lankan mission is not in Venezuela at all.
Venezuela sits outside the group of forty countries whose tourist ETA carries no government charge, so the standard rate applies, and our service fee for handling the application is added to it. Both appear in the live prices shown on this page.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. Every Venezuelan citizen arriving for a holiday, a family visit, a yoga or Ayurveda retreat or a sporting event needs a tourist ETA in place before boarding. Airlines look for it at the first departure desk, so a traveller starting at Maiquetía is asked about it long before reaching the Indian Ocean.
The requirement follows the passport, not the place you live. A Venezuelan with residence in Colombia, Peru, Chile, Spain or the United States still applies as a Venezuelan and is charged the standard government rate, because a foreign residence card does not change the nationality recorded on the application.
Dual nationals should think before they type. Many Venezuelan families carry Spanish or Italian citizenship through grandparents, and both of those passports fall under the waiver of the government charge. Whichever booklet you enter is the one you must hand over in Colombo, so choose once and use it for the ticket, the application and the journey.
Work is a separate matter. Venezuelan engineers, traders and speakers travelling for meetings, conferences or short training need the business option instead of the tourist one, while journalism, political activity and NGO assignments require prior clearance from the Sri Lankan government that the online ETA cannot provide.
Stay & validity
A tourist ETA gives Venezuelan visitors 30 days in Sri Lanka, counted from the day of first arrival, with two entries allowed inside that period. Leave for a few nights in the Maldives and come back, and you receive only what remains of the original 30 days, not a new month.
The approval can be used for travel during the six months after it is issued, which helps Venezuelans whose itineraries depend on scarce seats and shifting schedules.
Six months of passport validity from the date you land is the condition that trips up Venezuelans more than any other. Renewal through SAIME has been slow and costly for years, and many people travel on booklets close to expiry or carrying a prórroga extension. Compare your arrival date with the expiry before paying, since government charges are not refunded.
Pricing
Live fees for Venezuelan passport holders, shown all-in — any government charge that applies to your passport and our service fee together, with nothing added later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Venezuela
Requirements
Everything Venezuelan passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality.
Passport valid for at least six months from the date you arrive in Sri Lanka — the same passport you will travel on
A clear image of the passport bio-data page, with every corner visible and no glare over the photograph
A working email address, which is where the approval is sent and which you should be able to open while travelling
A credit or debit card for online payment
Your intended arrival date and an address in Sri Lanka, such as your first hotel
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with one form per traveller and a full review before you pay.
Pick the Tourist, Business or Transit option that matches the real purpose of your trip, and add every traveller in your party to the same application.
Give each traveller's details exactly as printed on the passport, plus the intended arrival date and an address in Sri Lanka. Entries are made in English.
Check every name, date and passport number on the review screen before paying. Corrections are simple at this stage and difficult afterwards.
The approval is linked electronically to your passport number. Keep a copy on your phone and a printout with your travel documents for check-in and arrival.
Most ETA applications lodged by Venezuelans are approved within a day or two. That is typical, not promised, and a few take longer when a name or number is checked by hand.
Apply at least three to five days before you leave, and earlier if you are flying in December, around Carnaval or in Semana Santa, when the few long-haul seats out of Caracas fill early.
Sri Lanka runs nine and a half hours ahead of Caracas throughout the year. A form submitted on a Venezuelan evening lands in the small hours in Colombo, so do not expect an answer before the following day.
On arrival
An approved ETA gets you on the plane. This is what happens once you land, and how to make the arrival as quick as possible.
Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake, about 30 kilometres north of Colombo, handles nearly all international arrivals. Follow the signs to immigration and join the foreign passport queue.
The officer retrieves your ETA from the passport number. Have the approval email to hand as a backup, on paper or saved offline, since airport connectivity is not guaranteed.
You may be asked where you are staying, how long for and when you leave. A hotel confirmation and your return ticket answer all three in a few seconds.
Your passport is endorsed with the date you must leave by. Read it at the counter — that date, not the length of your booking, is what counts if your plans change.
Getting there
No airline links Venezuela and Sri Lanka directly, and international schedules at Simón Bolívar airport in Maiquetía have changed repeatedly in recent years. The usual pattern is one long flight to Istanbul or Madrid followed by a second leg east, sometimes with a further change in the Gulf. Confirm what is actually operating before you plan around it.
Best time to go
Venezuela has a wet season and a dry one but no real winter, so the pull of Sri Lanka is not warmth. What it offers a Venezuelan is a different kind of tropics: Buddhist temples, elephants and leopards, tea estates at altitude and a coastline that faces the Indian Ocean instead of the Caribbean.
December to March is the best window for the south and west coasts and the hill country, and it lines up with the Venezuelan Christmas break and with Carnaval in February or early March.
The long school holiday from late July to mid-September coincides with the south-west monsoon, when Colombo and the southern beaches see regular rain. Families travelling then should look east, to Trincomalee, Pasikudah and Arugam Bay, where the weather is settled, and may catch the Kandy Esala Perahera in July or August.
Semana Santa usually falls just before Sinhala and Tamil New Year in mid-April, when many Sri Lankan businesses close for several days and trains are packed.
Avoid these
Problems are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the ones that come up most often on applications from Venezuela — worth a minute now rather than a new application later.
Because renewing a Venezuelan passport can take months, people often book first and check the date later. Sri Lanka counts six months from the day you arrive, and an airline will refuse boarding to a passenger who falls short.
Venezuelan passports print two surnames, yet airline bookings made abroad often carry only one. The ETA should match the passport's machine-readable lines in full, so enter both surnames even if your ticket shows a shorter version, and ask the airline to align the booking.
Dual nationals sometimes fill in the form with one document and pack the other. The authorisation is tied to a single passport number, and arriving in Colombo with a different booklet means the officer cannot find it. A fresh application, with a fresh charge, is the only fix.
A Venezuelan passport does not open every connecting airport without paperwork. Check whether your route through Europe, Türkiye, the Gulf or the United States needs a transit or entry visa of its own, because being stopped at the midpoint wastes the ETA as surely as a typing error.
Passport number mistyped
The authorisation attaches to the number you enter. One wrong character produces an ETA that does not match the passport handed over at the counter, and a paid application cannot be edited afterwards.
Passport with under six months left
Sri Lanka expects six months of validity counted from the day you arrive, not the day you apply. A passport that falls short is refused at check-in regardless of the ETA.
The wrong ETA type
Attending meetings or a conference on a tourist ETA is outside its conditions. Choose the option that matches what you will actually do in the country.
Conditions
These conditions are set by Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration and Emigration and do not vary by nationality.
Sri Lanka requires an Electronic Travel Authorisation for short visits by all foreign nationals, and it should be approved before you travel. Even where the government charge is waived, the authorisation itself is still required.
The authorisation is recorded against the passport number you enter. If that passport is lost, replaced or renewed before you travel, the ETA does not move across and a new application is needed.
A tourist ETA allows two entries. The stay period runs from your first arrival, so a second entry is granted only the balance of that period rather than a fresh allowance.
A tourist ETA covers holidays, family visits, medical treatment and cultural or sporting events. Business meetings, conferences and short training need the business option, and a stopover of up to two days uses the transit option.
Immigration officers at the port of entry may ask for a confirmed return or onward ticket and evidence that you can support yourself for the length of your stay.
An approved ETA lets you travel to Sri Lanka. The decision to admit you is made by an immigration officer on arrival, and the conditions printed on your approval govern your stay.
Consular services
Sri Lanka has no resident embassy in Caracas, and consular matters for Venezuela have been handled from its mission in Cuba; confirm the current arrangement with that embassy if you ever need it. For a tourist ETA you need no mission at all, since the application, the payment and the approval are all dealt with online.
FAQs
The questions Venezuelan passport holders ask most often about travelling to Sri Lanka.
Yes — Venezuelan citizens need an Electronic Travel Authorisation, often called a Sri Lanka visa or e-visa, approved before they travel. It is requested online and linked to your passport number, and for a holiday it allows a stay of 30 days.
The application asks for your passport number and its expiry date, and Sri Lanka requires six months of validity from the day you arrive. Enter the details exactly as your document and its extension show them. If you doubt that an airline along the way will accept the extension, renewing before you travel is the safer course.
No. Venezuela is not among the forty countries covered by the waiver of the government charge, so the standard rate applies to adult applicants, together with our service fee. A Venezuelan child under 12 is not charged the government fee for a tourist stay of up to 30 days. The live prices shown on this page carry the figures that apply to a Venezuelan application today.
The rules follow the passport you travel on. If you hold only a Venezuelan passport, you apply as a Venezuelan at the standard rate, even with a Spanish residence card. If you also hold a Spanish passport and choose to travel on it, apply with that one and carry it to Colombo.
A tourist ETA allows 30 days from first arrival, with a second entry permitted inside the same 30 days. To remain longer you would need an extension from the Department of Immigration and Emigration in Battaramulla, requested before your permitted stay runs out.
With at least one change and usually two. The common routings run through Istanbul, or through Madrid and a Gulf hub such as Doha or Dubai. Services from Venezuela have been reduced and restored several times, so check current schedules and any transit visa rules before buying.
Three to five days before departure is the minimum we suggest, and a week or two is wiser for December, Carnaval and Easter. Approvals generally come through within a day or two, but nobody can guarantee a time, and Venezuelan itineraries leave little room to rebook.
A tourist ETA covers holidays, family visits, medical and wellness stays and sporting or cultural events. It does not allow employment, self-employment, trade or business. Venezuelans attending meetings, conferences or short training should choose the business option, and an approved ETA of either kind is not a guarantee of entry.
Your nationality is already set to Venezuela. Complete the form in around ten minutes, review every detail, and receive your ETA by email.
Other nationalities
Charges, routes and the practical details differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
